Making sense (and, sometimes, nonsense) out of Current News, Issues, Politics

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Is Black Lives Matter Killing Blacks?

The Black Lives Matter movement grew out of the belief that police were specifically targeting and killing unarmed blacks across the United States. As a result, there has been public and federal pressure for police to pull back on policing activity. Less traffic stops. Less confrontations with blacks in general. Adding to the problem, Police Officers are now so afraid of being charged with a crime that they are hesitating to effectively do their jobs. As a result, less guns and fewer potentially violent criminals are being taken off the streets.

In Chicago, police traffic stops are down 90%, while gun violence is skyrocketing. Murders, alone, are up 72% from last year, and it is estimated that the city is trending to have 700 murders this year, or approximately 1/20th of all the murders in the United States. More importantly, 71% of the murders in Chicago are of blacks. While, as of this writing, there have been 105 blacks murdered out of the 151 total in the city, the number of police-involved homicides is just 2 (races unknown).

So, this begs the question; Are reduced policing activities killing more blacks? You be the judge. Is the Black Lives Matter movement actually killing more blacks than saving their lives?